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For the record

This is Brian Martin, deputy sports editor, chiming in just to clear up a couple of things.

First of all, Jon Gold was given a few days off at the end of last week. Jill Painter — in addition to spending all week teaming to write an expansive feature about UCLA’s 88-game winning streak — agreed to cover Saturday’s game vs. BYU in the John R. Wooden Classic.

We don’t feel like we should have to post reporters’ schedules here, nor should we have to explain why they’re taking days off. Worth noting is this: Even on his day off, Jon still reported on the firing of defensive coordinator Chuck Bullough and receivers coach Reggie Moore. But apparently that wasn’t enough.

We shouldn’t have to come to this blog and insist on a certain code of behavior. From here on out, the personal attacks will no longer be tolerated. This is a free blog after all — please check your sense of entitlement at the door.

I’m not sure what some people are trying to accomplish. We realize most of you are passionate Bruins fans. We know there will be joking around and trash-talking, but please keep the personal digs to yourselves.

and yet insidesocal.com/usc is still as trashy as ever… though I guess less ogling over cheerleaders and random female bands…

I will have to commend that I’m seeing less Strip Club ads on this site. Hey Brian, can you make sure they don’t come back? Not cool for readers who check this blog at work.

HighDesertBruin

Amen! And thanks for all the good hard work you do, Jon. You are my #1 connection to the Bruins.

BruinBrent

Thank you Mr. Martin. I am so tired of the personal digs against Jon and Jill. This is a free blog, and I appreciate all the work they both do. Those personal attacks have been ruining an otherwise great bunch of work. Not because they are true, but because they detrtact from what this blog is about, and that is UCLA.

Reformed Droog

Frankly, I’m embarrassed…

I’m embarrassed that these negative people represent the proud institution that I have always believed to be a cut above the rest.

I’m embarrassed that we are unable to police our own and need someone to come in and slap the collective hands of a bunch of grown men.

Oh, and GO FUCK YOURSELF, VB. I’ve tried to play devil’s advocate many times when I thought you had a valid point, but now I realize that you’ve just become a sad, bitter child. Maybe it’s time for you to go annoy your own alma mater. Where is that again? Santa Monica College?

Anonymous

Do you mean the article that’s more about UConn’s women’s team than UCLA? Do you think that’s very interesting to most Bruin fans? I once won at beer pong 88 times in a row too so I guess you should have written an article about how it tied the UCLA men’s college basketball win streak. I’ll make it clear for you, women’s anything doesn’t equal men’s anything and that article really isn’t interesting to me.

You guys can take all the days off you want, I don’t care, but you would expect proper coverage of major games and that you would schedule with respect to them. It’s not like beat reporters have typical 8-5 jobs anyway.

While Jon Gold is a nice enough guy and he does put up some good quotes, he barely ever gets anything first or newsworthy without it being reported many other places first. I used to come to this blog because Brian Dohn would occasionally have information that wasn’t reported elsewhere from the sources he developed. When is Jon going to be developing sources like that? It’s already been two years. At the least, you can report things like injury updates more often since it affects the team so much and should be easy to find out, but even those are far and few between.

At the end of the day, the Daily News puts out whatever product it wants, and people will buy it or not. Personally, I just cancelled my delivery subscription.

Blitzed

Welcome to the Internet.

BruinGirl

To the Bruin fans who trash talked Jill and Jon: very uncool. We are supposed to be Bruins not Trogans. I thought we’re supposed to be better than that. This is a free blog for chrissakes. If Jill or others report in place of Jon from time to time it’s no reason to act like schoolkids with a substitute teacher.

Blah blah blah

Still no info

Blue Bruin

Because some of my comments probably precipitated Mr. Martin’s posting, I’ll use the open-forum nature of this blog to post a rebuttal. I understand full well that neither the Daily News nor Jon Gold owe me anything. I live in San Diego and therefore do not have a paid subscription to the Daily News. Nevertheless, I do view, and from time to time, click on the banner ads. I feel I’m upholding my end of the bargain in that respect.

Let me make it clear that I posted my earlier comments because I sincerely WANT to come to this site as my first choice for UCLA coverage. First and foremost, Jon does an incredible job covering the teams, and is a fantastically gifted writer. I want to read his game recaps and features much more than I want to read the stories published by the L.A. Times or ESPN Los Angeles.

Number 2, Jon and his predecessor have done a great job taking me inside the UCLA program. I feel this blog is truly the best source for inside information about UCLA. It’s much more thorough than the two competitors I just referenced.

My ultimate objective is to compliment Jon and the Daily News for raising the expectations of the quality of coverage I consume. Because high-quality game recaps are posted and in-game chats are conducted, one comes to expect such features on a regular basis. It truly baffles me that there were no in-game chats for the Kansas and BYU contests. They were clearly the biggest and more important games of the season to date, and would have provided a great forum a game chat. Likewise, Jon’s post-game video clips and recap would have made pertinent finishing touches.

On that note, I’d like to formally ask why UCLA basketball coverage seems to get second class treatment. I feel that basketball is UCLA’s signature sport and everything else should revolve around it. However, if you come back and say that football-related posts result in significantly more clicks, comments, or advertising interest, then I’ll be persuaded to change my opinion. Perhaps such a breakdown would make an interesting post one day.

Mikey Likes It!

Not aware of any inappropriate remarks made about Jon BUT here are a few legitimate constructive suggestions.

1. Not enough attention to Q & A’s: Not to compare the two BUT Jon Doan had 10 sets of 10 questions each week. Jon Gold has had 3 sets of 4 questions each week.

2. New releases posted on the blog from the Sports Information Director DON’T qualify as “stories”. The are pre-written and require NO work from JON.

3. During the BIGGGEST week of the year for UCLA sport JON offered 3 sets of 4 questions, several a couple of news releases, comparatively insignificant basketball stories re: pre-season games, only 1 post practice update and three “canned” videos from the ASU game the week before.

4. I think the Daily news needs to rething their hiring of Jon in favor of a UCLA graduate that has more passion for the JOB. There is a reason Scott wolfe is a USC graduate and Daily News writer for the Trojans. A little rah rah doesn’t hurt!!!

5. Perhaps a little less attention to the VERY insignificant Jon & Vinnie show or other outside ventures might create enough time to do the blog right! The absolute lack of attention during the the BIG game week is scandulous!

Vu

I greatly appreciate Jon’s work and hope he continues to do it well.

As with any blog service, it’s the rabid that dominate. But rabid is not what represents the common view. This is the reason why you don’t trust volunteer opinions like AM radio and blogs to measure the masses. Because people that call into talk shows are strong-minded enough to try to ram their opinion down people’s throats. Most people go about their day, perfectly fine without ever calling or joining in. But if you listen to sports radio or blogs, the world is always falling apart. These commenters are not typical views. They’re views from the fringe.

Hiding behind the anonymous Internet while you tear down people is pretty low and classless. For those that do, know that people pay attention. And don’t forget the holiday cheer! Merry Christmas!

TheRealist99

So what you’re saying is that if people want to take days off the Daily News might or might not have someone do a quality job covering whatever sporting event is taking place during that time? Great way to increase readership!

If this blog didn’t bring in money for the Daily News, it wouldn’t exist. Why have paid employees spend time on something that isn’t somehow beneficial? After all, time is money.

http://www.fathersrightsinc.com Mikey Likes It!

Not aware of any inappropriate remarks made about Jon BUT here are a few legitimate constructive suggestions.

1. Not enough attention to Q & A’s: Not to compare the two BUT Jon Doan had 10 sets of 10 questions each week. Jon Gold has had 3 sets of 4 questions each week.

2. New releases posted on the blog from the Sports Information Director DON’T qualify as “stories”. The are pre-written and require NO work from JON.

3. During the BIGGGEST week of the year for UCLA sport JON offered 3 sets of 4 questions, several a couple of news releases, comparatively insignificant basketball stories re: pre-season games, only 1 post practice update and three “canned” videos from the ASU game the week before.

4. I think the Daily news needs to rething their hiring of Jon in favor of a UCLA graduate that has more passion for the JOB. There is a reason Scott wolfe is a USC graduate and Daily News writer for the Trojans. A little rah rah doesn’t hurt!!!

5. Perhaps a little less attention to the VERY insignificant Jon & Vinnie show or other outside ventures might create enough time to do the blog right! The absolute lack of attenti

Anonymous

Did Jon and Jill go crying to their daddy editor about the meanies making posts on the blog. HaHaHaHa.

Brian Martin

Thanks for the feedback, folks. It’s appreciated. Some good points, for sure. Others … to each his/her own.

One point I’d like to make is that Jon wanted and asked to travel to Lawrence for the game against the Jayhawks. I know this might disappoint several assumptions and crash several theories. We felt that he should stick with the football beat since the Bruins were still in contention for a bowl bid. So blame his bosses all you want for that one.

And while I fight the urge to respond to anonymous commenters — right up there with Internet Tough Guy in my mind — I can’t help myself in this instance:

@ Anonymous 5:41: The main story focused mostly about the evolution of the Bruins’ 88-game win steak. The second story focused on whether the streaks are comparable — a valid issue. And the third piece of this amazing amount of hard work was a game-by-game look at each of the 88 victories. If anything, one could argue there wasn’t ENOUGH about the UConn team. We felt the spotlight should be on the Bruins’ incredible accomplishment, and we think Jill Painter and Tom Hoffarth did an exemplary job.

You screwed the pooch with your rant. Never show your emotions. With you sending out blasts, you managed to put readers who dont make those comments lumped in with the ones that did. Not only that, the “bad” posters are now either enraged or, more likely, see that you’re hurt and will continue the games.

Also, you now look sensitive. Sensitive to the fact that you are aware your product is subpar (it is). A simple “Please remember to post non-offensive materials when submitting comments” would have worked better. Then you’d look like you’re worried about the readers too. Instead you chose to draw the line between Daily News and the readers.

Bob

It’s free UCLA info. Everyone just stfu and enjoy it. That means you to advice guy.

Lifetime Bruin Fan

BRIAN…..WELL SAID.

Mike in SJ

I think you did a good thing by giving an address for feedback, Brian. I hope you don’t get too much spam as a result.

The other thing to keep in mind is that comments are only ever posted by a tiny percent of the readers of any web forum. The vast majority of the readers here come for the posts and view the comments as a sideshow (if we bother to read them at all). They’re not representative of the average reader of this weblog, let alone of the average UCLA alum.

Anonymous

Jill Painter once wrote:

Pete Carroll is everything that’s right about college football. He is college football.

So some Bruins may find her to less than a reliable journalist source.

Alex

This is the most pathetic thing I’ve seen. I feel pity for anyone who comes to this blog with nothing useful to say to the blog authors. Moreover, that it gets so offensive and ludicrous that someone needs to rebuke the population at large.

I don’t blame the internet. People were always like this. It’s sad that we only realizing it now.

We Bruin fans are pathetic. We’re not as crazy as the fans are at other schools. But we’re trying to be and that’s what’s pathetic.

Alex18

I don’t really read the comments much so I can’t speak to whether they have been over the top, but I will say that since Dohn left I have found myself over at BRO much more than over here, because I think Jon is not nearly as good at reporting and writing as Brian was. While I did not agree with many things he wrote, I always found Dohn an engrossing read with interesting points of view and a good sense of the history of the UCLA program. The same cannot be said of Jon so far. His writing is a level below Brian’s (and the BRO writers’, for that matter), and despite being on the job for a while he still seems to be clueless of the UCLA winning tradition (albeit one which has taken a step back over the past decade in football). While Jill has improved from her dreadful work filling in for Dohn a couple years back, she still provides little more than what an AP feed would give, and those couple sentences are not enough to gain our respect for her writing ability.

You are not doing us a favor by making this blog, you are providing us a service, and while personal attacks are certainly a shame, if you want people to respect your writers then MAKE THEM WRITE WELL. We aren’t 10 year olds. I look forward to the 88 win story and to Jon’s continued improvement (and he has undeniably improved from his first months), but don’t act like we’re spoiled children when we demand something more substantial. The LA Times is terrible, but they aren’t your only competition anymore. Put time, research, and thoughtful writing into the blog and I am sure Bruin fans will be appreciative.

Big Ugly Llama

Some advice to Advice Giver: don’t drink and blog! You just remind everyone of the nerdy little clarinet player in your high school English class who used to ask the teacher all the time if Chaucer and Shakespeare were influenced by Jedi philosophy.

Better to stay quiet and let everyone think you’re a fool than to type and prove it.

Anonymous

UCLA fans are the rudest, least educated miscreants God now wishes he’d never created. But come to think of it, we all suck.

MichaelRyerson

The abusive behavior towards the blog host(s) will never end entirely. It is how people with self-esteem issues grab a little sunshine for themselves. They can say things here, in anonymity, that they would never say in real life. The rank behavior may be lessened a bit though by eliminating the ‘anonymous’ posting option and permanently banning ip addresses that are connected to abusive behavior. Not perfect solutions but a start.

Anonymous

Mr. Martin,

Either you haven’t been doing your job very long or you have some extremely sensetive writers on your staff. Welcome to the internet. This being a public forum, you have given everybody, even those you don’t wish to hear, a platform for praise, vitriol, opinion and sometimes just flat out stupidity. Deal with it. Either ban the violators or get some thicker skinned writers, but whatever you do, don’t write a blog pleading with everyone behave better.

Further, you need to accept two facts here. Jon, while hard working and innovative with this blog, is still very green. Nevertheless, I expect that he will continue to improve as he has done since his arrival. Jill on the other hand, is just plain awful. I’m only speaking for myself here, but I would personally rather have the blog shut down in Jon’s absence then to have to read any of the boring, mindless drivel she provides. The fact that she’s still a professional journalist astounds me and I think you should take a cue from Neuheisel and consider severing some relationships within your department. Oh, and if you think this is bad, look at Wolf’s blog, or Wilner’s blog, or Condotta’s blog; it’s all the same Mr. Martin and it’s up to you to make some changes if your peopole can’t handle it.

Good day.

MichaelRyerson

thanks anonymous, for a perfectly stupid post. rather the blog is shut down than ‘have to read’…? nobody’s forcing you to read anything. you’re a jerk, get over yourself.

mike

I think Jill should post here when Dohn/Gold is gone. I will always remember her Bell/Favre comments and the reader responses. that will go down as oe of the funniest things I ever read on the internet. The problem is somehow the admin took offense to something that everyone thought was funny (except maybe Jill).

Son of CharIie Bucket

Hey Martin, you should go over to your other blog and see how they treat the wolfman! they are like a bunch of Vicodin junkies over there, and they treat wolf like he is the pharmacist who won’t give then another 30 days worth because they just refilled last week!!

it’s not as bad here even though you don’t require log- ins. i am convinced the cheap-shotters are not real Bruins anyway. don’t take them seriouly, for crying out loud, that just validates these anon kooks!

John A

Brian, agree totally. The vast majority Bruin fans appreciate the work Jon/Jill put in. They do a great job providing up to date Bruin info. My only complaint with Jon is that he puts up with way too much BS on these boards, so feel free to start banning folks. It would be much appreciated by many of us.

W.E.B. Dupree

Dear editor: The next time you have to give these Bruins a lesson in civility, please also remind them not to steal purses.

John

TO THE EDITOR:

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but in the public blogosphere, if you allow anyone to post without registering you will enable anyone to misrepresent themselves.

Many of the attackers only post un-acceptable drivel to shine a negative image upon my Bruins.

If you made everyone register with a valid email address you would stop this un-acceptable behavior.

For the record, I am not embarrassed to be a Bruin, I am embarrassed that you so casually blame the Bruins for posting ridiculousness on your site. Dohn did the same thing…

Bruins do not behave without decorum…anonymous bloggers do.

EasleyJersey5

If so-called “Bruin-Fans” want the inside info, perhaps join a UCLA FAN web site like BRO. This is a BLOG…if you don’t like it, start your own.

As for you W.E.B. Dupree, how do the names: Frostee Rucker, Winston Justice, and Rey Malaluga sound in the civility section? At UCLA, you break the law, you’re punished. At Southern Cal, you play.

bibs

Many of you need to get a life. I suspect that most of the negative criticism comes from idiots who think they are loyal SUC fans , but never went to either school and spend their time blogging in between serving fries.Both Jon and Jill do a good job with the information available to them.The only real criticism is the shorter number of Q&A’s,but that is probably because less good questions are sent in to answer.SC fans need to stay on your side of the aisle and watch Lame disappear.

581Bruin

Jon – Keep up the good work and ignore all the BS that’s floating around. Your hard work and insights are truly appreciated by us Bruin Fans. Thanks and hang in there.

Anonymous

Jon, while we’re at it, some interview advice:
1) Ask open ended questions and let the players talk. Every one of your questions ends with two long-winded potential answers that you craft and then player is asked to choose one of the two.
2) Don’t end every single interview with “good stuff.” It takes the meaning out of it. Some of the interviews are good stuff and others aren’t.
Thanks, and remember you’re still young. Be thick-skinned and teachable and you’ll be great.

Jon Gold

Can’t we all get along ??

spedjones

LOL at people getting so uptight with Jon. It’s a freakin free blog. Get over it.

UB (Ultimate Bruin)

Mr. Martin, with all due respect, you have missed the most salient issue of all . . . It is not that Jon is not entitled to take a few days off, or that the Daily News has to explain the work schedules of its reporters . . . the salient issue is that even when he’s working, Jon’s level of reportage is a far cry from that of his predecessor. Additionally, Jon is a ‘cry-baby’ when he gets criticized — even when the criticism is constructive and civil. So, if Jon is going to p!ss and moan every time he gets constructive criticism, what do you think is going to happen? The criticism will devolve into personal attacks. Now, on the other hand, if he would act more professional and take the criticism on the chin, then this would be a non-issue. Just my humble opinion.

Everlong Bruin

This whole thing started because the readers actually wanted MORE of Jon, not less. People were complaining because they wanted MORE coverage of the Kansas & BYU games. Only later did everyone start saying, “and do this and this and this too….”

Jon, you’re doing a great job and most just want more of you. That’s why they are here on this blog, to read it & comment. The only thing that Dohn had over you are his inside connections for recruiting. That will come with time hopefully. Love all the interviews with the players … nothing anyone writes or comments can replicate a personal interview with a real live person. That’s one of the things I most look forward to here.

I do think this whole thing is blown way out of proportion. There were only like 2 negative comments and then a “For the record” from the big boss? Not necessary in my opinion. Next time, when you do take some time off (especially before a big game), just write a post saying that I’ll be off for a couple days. That’s what blogging is for. I check this blog every day and I have to admit that I was wondering why there wasn’t more coverage of BYU. Just a simple, “Sorry guys, I’m off” would have been enough. No biggie.

Just tell us who the next defensive coordinator is before it’s announced and we’ll all be happy. Cheers!

Lifelong Bruin Fan

Thank you Brian for trying to instill decency and civility to this forum. Personally I think Jon is doing a fantastic job and really enjoy his stories and interviews.

Keep up the great work Jon!

To those who are dissatisfied with this blog, please express yourself in a civil manner with a tone of appreciation instead of entitlement, thank you.

UB (Ultimate Bruin)

And, one more thing for the record, Mr. Martin . . . You are correct that this is a “free” blog — for us, the viewing public, but I suspect that all of those advertisers on the top of the page, and bottom of the page, and anywhere else they appear, are not here for “free.” Instead, I am quite certain they pay a fee to place their ads on the daily news blogs. And, if memory serves me correctly, media outlets take PAINSTAKING measures to develop metrics as to “readership” or “listeners” or “blog hits” — and even break these metrics into granular demographics to demonstrate to potential advertisers the “value” of advertising with them. So, while we may not “pay” a fee to be here, our presence certainly does create value to the Daily News. Unless, of course, you place an asterisk on your metrics stating, “These statistics are without counting any hits from VB, UB and ReformedDroog.” ‘Riders on high horses have farther to fall!’

Anonymous

After reading all of this drivel, I want to become a Trogan.

Reformed Droog

“These statistics are without counting any hits from VB, UB and ReformedDroog.” ‘Riders on high horses have farther to fall!’

LOL! That literally made me laugh out loud.

I made this exact (advertising) argument before when I was asking for the blog posting issues to be fixed. I do think this is an extension of the Daily News business and visitors are customers. But I don’t get to walk in to Best Buy and start yelling at employees because I think they aren’t providing enough options or value.

Look, I probably complain on average more than anyone else here, so I’m clearly no angel. And come to think of it, I KNOW I gave the IT guys over at Daily News some serious crap. And, well, I clearly am fed up with posters like your friend VB.

At other times, I have respectfully asked for changes, suggested improvements, etc. I wanted to sling crap the moment I read the “Pete Carroll is all that is right with college football” nonsense, but I managed to contain myself. (Although it seems there was some embarrassment all around since that article is no longer online.)

Some people seem to be able to rationalize their own poor behavior no matter what, and asking them to change is an exercise in futility.

On a few occasions, I have gotten personal, and it was inappropriate. I don’t want to be a hypocrite – I’ll volunteer to be the first to be banned if it will actually make a difference…

BRUINBEATCH

Holy crap what did I miss?What did you idiots do?This is imberrasing I’m imberrased for whoever is acting like a bruin lovin douche! What happen to keeping it classy bruin come on!

http://http.//amillennialist.blogspot.com Amillennialist

When did Nestor take over here as editor?

I agree that all of us should be civil, and I like Jon and Jill (don’t be disrespectful to a lady!), but chastising your customers (us readers) as a whole is unfair, insulting, and bad for business.

If you want to eliminate some of the nonsense (or at least make it more inconvenient to be obnoxious) disable anonymous posting (blocking IP addresses is effective only if the offender doesn’t know how to release and renew his).

http://http.//amillennialist.blogspot.com Amillennialist

You can also moderate comments.

Marc

You people are a butch of turd buckets. Total complete jerks. Get your UCLA news somewhere else if you don’t feel that this sight lives up to your expectations.

Jon, you are doing a good job. You will continue to get better as well. These people are selfish and self centered. They don’t know how to show appreciation for the simple things in life.

I am knot only ashamed to be associated as UCLA fans with these people but also to be human beings as well.

For you people to somehow try to justify your actions by complaining about your expectations is completely disgusting.

Anonymous

This blog has advertisements, so the statement that it is “free” is nonsense. The paper gets paid for the advertising otherwise the blog wouldn’t be here, so the fact that readers actually expect some content isn’t unjustified.

If you want to publish the blog ad free (which will never happen), then you can just go ahead and tell your readers off.

So, readers come to the page expecting something, you get the ad revenue, but they get nothing. It might actually be in your best interest to cater to your audience!

On the other hand, all the readers should just use firefox and an adblocker add on.

Chris

Jon,
You do a really good job. I very much appreciate your blog and your insights rather than paying Rivals, etc. Hope you had a good vacation…and can find a way to laugh (as HARD as I do) at the absurd knuckleheads slinging the criticism.

la_bruin

It’s clear that most people want a decent place to read the Daily News’ UCLA coverage and that there’s a few bad seeds poisoning the well.

This is what several sites I’ve worked with have implemented to mitigate just these sort of issues:

Step 1: Disallow anonymous posting.

Step 2: Delete certain posts. This isn’t a democracy, it’s a dictatorship & we all know who’s causing the issues.

Step 3: Implement comment ratings, allowing the public to vote down comments down to hides/make invisible comments that reach low enough voting thresholds.

Step 4: Leverage analytics to understand which accounts are responsible for the most voted down comments. Automate the banning of their accounts beyond a given key performance indicator on a weekly basis.

Meta

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